Neoproterozoic orogens amalgamating East Gondwana: Did they cross each other?

Abstract

Several schools of thoughts exist on how and when exactly did the final assembly of East Gondwana occurred and this topic has been discussed over and again in the past few decades. Here we review the present status of our understanding of Neoproterozoic to Cambrian tectonic evolution of the southern sector of East Gondwana and by assembling this special issue we present some of the key elements of new structural, geological and geochronological information obtained from the inland Sør Rondane Mountains in the Dronning Maud Land and surrounding regions. Altogether fifteen contributions are included in this special issue, most off which are exploring whether the Neoproterozoic orogens of East African Antarctic orogen and the late Kuunga orogens have affected the same geological entity. The results presented suggest the importance of Sør Rondane Mountains in understanding the tectonics of the final amalgamation of East Gondwana. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.